Dede Wilsey, the president of the board of trustees at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and a major philanthropist, was reported to be under investigation by city officials after a complaint was filed of financial misconduct, according to an Oct. 16 article in the San Francisco Chronicle . A press officer for the museums has since released a statement that the months-old claim was already reviewed by an independent investigator who "found no wrongdoing by the Museums, its employees, or its Trustees."

The museum's chief financial officer, Michele Gutierrez, was reported in the Chronicle to have filed a complaint after Wilsey authorized a payment of $450,000 to Bill Huggins, a city worker at the de Young museum who retired following a heart attack in 2014. Huggins' wife, Therese Chen, is the director of registration for the de Young, which is part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

The Chronicle reported that a board member told Gutierrez he did not know about the payment.

A Monday morning edition of San Francisco Buisness Times ran this statement from Erin Garcia, the museums' press officer:

"The payment, made under the recommendation of the Chief Financial Officer of the Corporation of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (COFAM), was a pay-equity, disability severance payment made to a 32-year city employee of the Museum authorized under section 5.102 of the City Charter (1996). The payment was approved unanimously by the audit committee and the full board of COFAM, and separately and unanimously approved by the audit committee of the Museum's Foundation with two board members abstaining (Bernard Osher and Jack McDonald).